Traditional Values and Identity Crisis: A Study of Oleander Girl by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni

Abstract

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, a Bengali by origin, is one of the most prolific Diaspora writers, emerged on the global literary field during 1990s. As a literary artist, she has presented a considerable amount of literary works that could draw attention of the readers around the globe and bring for her many prestigious literary awards too. A meticulous study of her works enables us to trace her skillful representation of the various cultural aspects of Indian especially Bengali culture, its age-old values along with a comparison of it with that of the new and modern ones. In her works she essentially speaks of women who are the victims of such age-old cultural and traditional values leading to a deep identity crisis in their life and how those women struggle to break that binding towards the realization of their self and set up a new space of their own. Oleander Girl (2010) by Divakaruni is one of the novels of same sort. It is an account of struggle of any other Bengali women like Sarojoni and Anu, especially that of Korobi who are the victims of such cultural and traditional values leading to develop deep identity crisis in their lives and who remain indomitable and all set to face any obstacle on the way of realizing their self. The present paper is an attempt to explore the impact of traditional, patriarchal Bengali society on the life of women and a struggle on the part of a few exceptional ones like that of Korobi, resulting to the final victory followed by re-union and acceptance by the same society.